Research: Aegina, Corinth, and Megara

Since I finished my simplified map of ancient Attica, I’ve been working on Corinth and Megara. It’s been weird, mostly because I originally thought I’d include Megara in Attica, but the isthmus of Corinth proved too large, and too sparsely populated for me to nudge Megara over. That remains the problem, actually.

See now, if I had the resources (books, time, education), I’d figure all of this stuff at as accurately as absolutely possible, but because I’m lacking in all three of those things (arguably the three most important after enthusiasm – and I’m not lacking in that), compromise must be reached somewhere, somehow.

There’s a fantastic place whose name never stuck out when I originally read the myths, called Sicyon, which has been a godsend in populating the region surrounding the isthmus. I fudged the island of Salamis, too (not to be confused with salami) so it would fit near the isthmus and I could put off figuring out “water.”

I think the missing piece of the puzzle is the island of Aegina. I’m seriously lacking any major towns, villages, or settlements in the lower left-hand corner of my region map, and even though Aegina is technically a little farther east than I would like, it isn’t like I haven’t exaggerated the terrain before. And the Argolid is going to be packed.

Once I finish with Corinth-Megara-Aegina, I think I’m going to work out the Argolid, which will include four big-name places: Tiryns, Argos, Lerna, and Mycene. The first was where Heracles was said to have ruled, the second should sound familiar (hint: “Jason and the ARGOnauts”), the third is where Heracles face the hydra.

The fourth, Mycene? Well, that’s kind of where the Trojan War started. Just a little.